The one symptom of colon cancer everyone is missing

Apart from some of our hypochondriac friends, none of us go through life analysing every unusual act by the body as an alarming signal that prompts a doctor's visit. Consider this the general human tendency of hoping "All is Well" until it isn't.

When it comes to fatal diseases such as cancer, most symptoms often go ignored until the situation worsens.According to the National Cancer Institute's estimates, 2,041,910 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in the United States in 2025 with an elevated number of young patients. With breast and colorectal cancer being some of the most common cases, more and more people have been worried about the disease.While lifestyle choices and environmental surroundings along with genetics form the fatal triangle of causes for the disease, being alert about its symptoms can impact the diagnosis and treatment positively.

A shocking symptom of colon cancer

While symptoms of colon cancer might just be a Google search away, there's a shocking one that is currently going viral on social media and has everyone in a daze: pencil-thin poop.As a TikTok user explained on the social media platform, along with common symptoms like sudden weight loss and diarrhoea, she noticed that her stools were thinner than normal. Assuming that it was irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), she didn't visit a doctor.

But when she did, the condition had progressed to stage 4 colon cancer.

Narrow stools: A waving red flag?

Doctors do sometimes see patients whose “stools are much thinner, or they’re pencil in thickness and size, which is a description that some patients with colorectal cancer will have,” said Dr Michael Cecchini, co-director of the colorectal program at the Center for Gastrointestinal Cancers and medical oncologist at Yale Cancer Center to HuffPost.com.According to a 2014 study published in Intestinal Research, narrow calibre stool was a sign of left colon cancer in 35 patients out of 579, substantiating it as a symptom of the disease.What's concerning is when thin stools are persistent. Why does this happen? Well, the symptoms occur if tumours are present near the end of the colon or line the inside of it, narrowing whatever the stool passes through.

Doctor or no doctor?

The sign of a healthy stool is when it comes out as one piece or several smaller pieces that are long and sausage-shaped, as per Medical News Today. While any noticeable change in the bowel habits is concerning, that's not always the case.

Changes in stool shape or consistency could also be the result of going to the bathroom more or less often.Pencil-thin poop is a rare sign of colorectal cancer but "when it exists, it is highly concerning," said Cecchini. More common signs include blood in the stool, abdominal pain and sudden weight loss. Sometimes, there can be no symptoms at all.But experiencing any of these symptoms must prompt a doctor's visit. “It’s very easy in younger individuals to think, ‘Oh, it’s just haemorrhoids,’ or something like that ...

and it may be, but also those things can coexist,” said Cecchini.Typically, getting a colonoscopy or colorectal cancer screening is advised to lower the risk or catch the disease in its early stages. While screenings start for most at 45, if you notice these symptoms before that age, you might be eligible for screenings.